Protesters demonstrate against U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in Portland, Ore., on September 19, 2017, outside the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (Photo by Alex Milan Tracy)(Sipa via AP Images)

The murder of Kate Steinle in California highlighted the fact that we have a serious criminal illegal alien problem in this country. Many of these individuals, after breaking the law to enter the country, go on to commit other crimes — theft, rape, and even murder. David Olen Cross released a December 2017 report based on Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) data, announcing that there are “973 foreign nationals (criminal aliens) incarcerated in the state’s prison system.”

Oregon has 14,739 inmates incarcerated in its 14 prisons scattered across the state. “Approximately one in every fifteen prisoners incarcerated by the state was a criminal alien, 6.60 percent of the total prison population,” the report said.

According to Cross, all of the 973 criminal aliens currently in the state’s prisons were identified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Anytime that happens, DOC officials will place an “ICE detainer” on the inmate. “After the inmate completes his/her state sanction, prison officials will transfer custody of the inmate to ICE,” he said.

Marion County, home to Salem, the state capital, houses the most illegal alien inmates with 235 — nearly one-fourth of the prison population. Washington County (Hillsboro) and Multnomah County (Portland, a sanctuary city) each have around 200 illegals — around 20 percent of the prison population in those counties.

An astounding 476 — 12.5 percent — of the criminal alien prisoners in Oregon have been convicted of committing crimes of a sexual nature, with 200 cases of sex abuse, 175 cases of rape, and 101 cases of sodomy. In fact, detainees with ICE detainers make up 39.32 percent of the state’s incarcerated sex offenders. A total of 136 of the state’s criminal alien inmates are in custody because they murdered someone. Drugs, assault, robbery, kidnapping, burglary, theft and driving offenses round out the top ten list of crimes committed.

The criminal aliens in Oregon prisons come predominantly from South and Central America as well as Cuba. Nearly 80 percent, 777, came from Mexico. The next highest country of origin is Guatemala with 19 inmates.

The cost is steep to house and care for these prisoners. The criminal aliens each cost Oregon taxpayers $94.55 per day. That adds up to $91,977 per day for all of the criminal aliens in the state — $643,980 per week, more than $33 million per year.

Those numbers do not include the costs incurred for legal services, interpreters, court costs, or victim assistance, nor do they include the devastating personal costs that victims of their crimes pay.

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), there are approximately 55,000 criminal aliens in U.S. prisons, accounting for one-fourth of prisoners in Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities. “There are about 297,000 criminal aliens incarcerated in state and local prisons. That number represents about 16.4 percent of the state and local prison population compared to the 12.9 percent of the total population comprised of foreign-born residents,” according to FAIR. The estimated cost of housing these criminals at the federal level is estimated to be $1.5 to $1.6 billion per year.